Race and ethnicity play a fundamental role in creating systemic disparities in health because they are major forces in structuring opportunities and barriers in our society. Differences in culture and language, social capital, economic status, and neighborhood resources vary by race and ethnicity; and these contextual factors, in turn, affect health-related behaviors, access to care and health outcomes. Minority groups face various economic, social, and cultural barriers to health care that do not act in isolation, rather they interact to create and perpetuate inequities in health. Many of these disadvantages and barriers play out in segregated, impoverished neighborhoods where poor educational and employment opportunities combine with a lack of internal and external community resources to strengthen the structural barriers to health faced by racial/ethnic minorities. Despite the presence of a vast body of research that speaks to contextual factors as they relate to health behaviors, a precise and comprehensive analysis of these various data sources has yet to be done. The Communities-In-Context (CIC) Core agenda includes rigorous statistical and spatial analysis of various data sources, including both survey-based data and administrative data. The CIC Core objectives are as follows: 1. Provide the data capacity, technical assistance, and ability to perform and assist in the rigorous analysis of the effects of various contextual factors on racial/ethnic health disparities. 2. Produce and disseminate high quality reports and results that contribute to the current knowledge of racial and ethnic health disparities and the role of various contextual factors. 3. Increase the number of faculty and graduate students interested in and capable of incorporating contextual factors in their analysis. Possible vehicles include workshops, seminars, and mini-conferences on theoretical, conceptual and empirical issues related to contextual analysis. The approach not only focuses explicitly on minority communities, but also provides a means for incorporating neighborhood characteristics into analyses of individuals. Thus generating new and much-needed information on the effects of neighborhoods and communities on racial/ethnic health disparities. The CIC will provide valuable insights into the plurality of factors impacting minority health disparities that are needed to inform future policy, education, communication, and research.